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I guess it’s a sign of the technology times when a report surfaces about the patents landed by the biggest tech firms in the world and the first thing that jumps to mind is how much patent trolling that will allow. Data from IFI Claims Patent Services has been published that shows which firms in the tech world landed the most patents in 2011. IBM held the top place spot for 2011, for the 19th year in a row. IBM landed 6,180 patents over they year, a gain of 5% from 2010 when it had 5,896 patents the second place firm for landing patents was a bit of a surprise to me, Samsung took that spot with 4,894. I wonder how many of those will be used to beat Apple up in court. Canon took the third spot with 2,821 patents, Panasonic landed 2,559, and Toshiba had 2,483. The firms I expected to be in the top of the list are surprisingly far down. Microsoft was in sixth spot with 2,311 patents, Sony took 7th with 2,286, and Seiko Epson had 1,533 patents. One of the larger makers of computers for

When it comes to the SSDs that Apple crams inside the MacBook Air notebooks the SSDs come from one of two sources – Samsung or Toshiba. Apparently, both brands of SSDs are used inside the machines depending on what is on hand. The thing that consumers take note of when shopping is that the Samsung model SSDs are considerably faster than the Toshiba brand. That difference in speed between the two SSD brands commonly used inside the Air may be even more noticeable this year. According to 9to5Mac, Samsung has discontinued the SSD that it was providing Apple in large quantities. The SSD was the 470, the new SSD that will take its place is called the 830, and it is considerably faster than the old 470 series. The 830 SSDs have typical speeds of 400MB/s write and 500MB/s read. The Toshiba model that is in the Air is according to 9to5Mac capable of only a bit over 200MB/s read and 175MB/s write. That is a huge performance gap. Samsung apparently didn’t confirm that it was shipping the 830

If analysts are correct, this could be a huge year for Nokia and its tie up with Windows Phone 7. Both Nokia and Microsoft have bet a big chuck of the farm on this tie up, and 2012 will be the year to see if it’s a fail or if a fortune is to be made. We went hands-on with what is likely to be one of the better WinPo 7 devices this week at CES with the Nokia Lumia 900. The strange part is that while Morgan Stanley analysts are predicting Nokia might sell as many as 37 million Windows phone devices this year, some analysts are predicting that Samsung will overtake Nokia for the lead in mobile phone shipments. Morgan Stanley is predicting even bigger shipments for Nokia Windows Phones in 2013 with 64 million units shipped. Microsoft is set for a boom with its mobile operating system after years of being an also ran; the software giant may be coming into its own. HTC will also be a big partner for Windows Phone handsets and when you ladle the HTC units expected to ship with the Nokia p

Oh dear; while we were marveling at big TVs, tiny phones and all the other excess CES 2012 has to offer, scientists decided we were another step closer to doomsday. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists shifted their Doomsday Clock one minute closer to midnight this week, a symbolic warning that humanity is one step closer to global disaster. Pushing us to the precipice are “inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change.” It’s two years since the Doomsday Clock was updated, the last change being in January 2010 when we actually gained a minute. Then, the world looked like it was cooperating on reducing nuclear weapons and getting a grip on climate change, prompting a temporary bubble of enthusiasm and the sense that we might not all be going to hell in a handcart quite yet. Sadly two years later and we’re back at five minutes to midnight. The fallout – political, industrial and literal – from the Fukushima plant disast

There’s a brand new Galaxy Tab in town, this one created in Germany with a new form factor that does a bit of sidestepping like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N did late last year. Regardless of this, it does have the long awaited (by me) forward-facing speaker upgrade, this being the biggest change between it and its 7.0 non-N edition. Inside you’ll be getting Android 3.2 Honeycomb right out of the box with Ice Cream Sandwich update in the pipeline. This device has a 7-inch PLS-LCD display at WSVGA resolution, that being 1024 x 600 pixels – that being 169.6 pixels per inch. The Galaxy Tab 7.0N weighs in at 345g, has 16GB of internal memory, and has a microSDHC slot to expand memory by up to 32GB. The battery inside this device is a massive 4000mAh, Bluetooth 3.0, and GPS, and the whole thing works with GSM and HSPA, so we’ll more than likely see this device coming in on AT&T and/or T-Mobile if it ever gets to the states. Likely though this tablet is going to stay in Germany for th

Today at CES we managed to run into an awesome 82″ multi-touch display being ran by Corning. What we have on video below is actually a quick demonstration of the new 82″ display showcasing its unlimited amounts of multi-touch points, stylus support, and more from the guys at Perceptive Pixel. What makes this display special is that it’s the world’s largest Gorilla Glass 2 display. Perceptive pixels has been shipping these large-scale displays since mid-2011 but what makes this one special is the outer layer on the screen. This prototype device represents the largest touch display to feature Corning Gorilla Glass, adding Corning’s thin, visually stunning and durable glass to the world’s largest projected capacitive flat-panel display technology. With Perceptive’s class-leading technology and Corning’s new Gorilla Glass 2 measuring just 2mm thick they are able to make these entire screens just 6 inches in depth. Adding the strengthened glass from Corning allows these panels to be use

Apple has reportedly rejected Sharp from its iPad 3 display supply chain, insiders suggest, because the company’s panels for the third-gen iOS tablet simply weren’t up to scratch. Samsung and LG Display have taken the lead roles in supplying Apple with what are expected to be high-resolution 2048 x 1536 screens for its imminent tablet, ETNews reports, after Sharp failed to secure approval from the Cupertino company for mass production. Sharp’s involvement in iPad 3 components was first rumored back in November last year, following reports earlier in 2011 that claimed Apple was considering a $1bn investment in a Sharp display plant. The status of that potential investment is unknown, however, though Sharp continues to supply panels for Apple’s iPhone. That iPhone partnership, at least, is expected to continue, with reports that Apple will use the company’s displays for the sixth-generation handset expected to debut later this year. Such panels are believed to use low-temperature pol

Google can’t force Android device manufacturers to roll out phone upgrades more quickly, but what it can do is tweak its official apps so as to give users the most up to date experience possible. The Google Search app for Android 2.2 Froyo and 2.3 Gingerbread phones – in short, the bulk of Android handsets on sale today, but remember that’s differentiation not fragmentation – has been updated to bring some ICS-style performance to older devices, including a pared down, simplified UI and a boost in actual searching speed. The app now groups search suggestions by type, with possibilities from the web slotted in at the top. It also takes into account your location, with country-specific suggestions and results, assuming Google has a local search page for that country. Deleting individual history items is easier too, with a long-press opening up the option to excise it from your recent list. You can also add other apps to the search pool, getting results from them too, by digging into

Technology made by the Lumus group has been applied to a pair of glasses shown at CES 2012, and today we’re getting our first chance to take a peek at a demo unit. These glasses are not a consumer product, instead being shown off here as a demonstration piece of equipment so that the Lumus technology can be picked up by a manufacturer and made into a real deal for-sale piece of equipment. The video below is also your rare chance to see your humble narrator without glasses on in the interim, only to move on into the 3D world with Lumus. With these glasses you’ll be able to see content including internet with a web browser, movies, TV and video games. What we see here is moving images that can be seen by me with the glasses on and not by anyone else around me as I’m viewing. The actual technology is in the boxes on the outsides of the lenses, one for each temple: OE-32 Optical Engine modules to project 720p resolution in 3D received through HDMI. What they’re saying here is that wh

There’s a decent selection of WiFi gadgets here at CES, and Samsung seems to be combining a little of the old and the new. Their new SMART Hub combines an external DVD disc drive and a conventional WiFi router, allowing connected devices to stream DVD movies and CD music across the local network. In a time when more and more Ultrabooks, netbooks and the like are making do without an optical drive, this could be an extremely useful addition. CDs and DVDs with data stored on them should be accessible as well, though installing a program from a disc might not. You can also connect a USB hard drive for network attached storage, which becomes accessible to anyone accessing the WiFi signal. The usual collection of security and in-browser management options are included with the SMART Hub, though unfortunately it lacks a battery, so you’ll have to position it near a power outlet. There is no Blu-ray support. Streaming to smartphones and tablets is possible through an app that connects wit

Gartner has released its preliminary data on PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011. Worldwide PC shipments declined 1.4 percent from the year before while US PC shipments declined by 5.9 percent with most vendors experiencing a downward slide except for Apple. Mac shipments, including both desktop machines and notebooks, rose 20.7 percent from the previous year. HP experienced the greatest decline in US PC shipments, dropping 26.1 percent, followed by Acer with an 11.4 percent drop, Dell with 4.5 percent, and Toshiba with 2.2 percent. Overall, the US saw negative 5.9 percent growth based on data taken from the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2011. Despite this, HP maintained its number one spot with over 4 million in shipments followed by Dell and then Apple in third. The worldwide PC shipment drop of 1.4 percent included a 16.2 percent decline from HP and an 18.4 percent decline from Acer. Lenovo and Asus rose with 23 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively, while Dell managed a 7

Today we saw some amazing advancements in temperature sensor technology by Texas Instruments. The TMP006 is the first single-chip passive infrared temperature sensor to date, and is extremely smaller than any currently available. It can easily be incorporated into smartphones, tablets, notebooks, and countless other mobile devices. More accurate temperature readings through using the TMP006 will allow manufacturers to optimize system performance. But what really stands out in the TMP006 chip, is its ability to measure temperature outside the device. This is a first for mobile devices, and is will undoubtedly be included in future smartphones and tablets. The sensor was extremely sensitive; even when holding your hand close to it a change in temperature was noticed and calculated. It even picked up a temperature change when aiming it towards a window 8 feet away. The sensors are extremely small at 1.6mm x 1.6mm, so they won’t bulk up any device that adopts the technology. The IR sig